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St-John’s Eve

Scholars agree that the Celts absorbed much from the Peoples they invaded. The evidence is plain, the Druids considered Midsummer an important festival. In fact, the solstice customs of Celtic Wales, Scotland, Cornwall and Brittany are perhaps more enthusiastic than those of nearby Saxon and Viking areas. (…) The greatest festival of the year of the old Breton witches was St-John’s Eve.

About St-John’s Eve (la veille de la St-Jean, in french), modern-day pagans, witches and Druids know it as Alban Heruin, meaning ‘light on the shore’. (…) Celtic pagans call it Coamhain, a corruption of the Gaelic ‘coimhead’; meaning ‘to guard, watch and observe’ referring to the night-long vigil.

Taken and adapted from: Taken from a Midsummer: Magical Celebrations of the Summer Solstice, By Anna Franklin